Being There
And there "she" was, standing proudly, "The Booth". Obviously it was dark by the time we arrived. 4 members of the band Headfreaks from Las Vegas were there, and Rick Karr, a man who was called out to the booth by the Lord.
Sheree immediatly started taking phone calls. The phone rang approximatly 3 minutes after our arrival. Rick had his log already set up and we were off and running. During this time I was handing out coffee and sandwiches to everybody. (All 8 of us) Rick stated that the volume of phone calls had significantly increased that day, and I showed him the article in the Sun about the booth, Rick's quest (A reporter had visited Rick earlier that week and his pictures were in the paper) and our adventure. Rick said, "That would explain the increase in calls!" I also explained to him that we were there to help take calls, and he could sit back and relax for a half day or so.
Then Chris Jefferson, Ranger of the Mojave Desert Preserve showed up in his Dakota Ranger Mobile. Now there were 9 of us. Also gave Chris coffee and a sandwich, to which he was thankful. He read the article and wanted to make sure this party wasn't going to get out of control. Chris also gave us a few maps of the Preserve, which showed the booth. Chris was surprised at that, said he didn't know the booth was on the map.
(Sorry for the washed out picture. They all complained of retina damage after my mighty flash went off. or is that "on"?)
A time exposure with dino taking calls in the booth. The Moon was starting to get low enough to set up the telescope. The Headfreaks and Chris had left by this time, so now we were down to 4. Unfortunatly, Dino's band decided not to come out to the booth, so Dino was the only member of the band there, so no acoustic set like we had envisioned.
Rick peering into the Universe. He said that it was like "Looking straight into Heaven!". I believe here he was looking at Jupiter and 5 of Jupiter's Moons. He was also thouroughly enjoying some of the 5 gallons of ice water we brought.
Here I am, around 7am the following morning. We stargazed till around 3am, and finally had to ignore the phone ringing and go to bed. This call was a reporter from The Sun, inquiring about the turnout and the band. I had to tell him, only one member of the band, and a maximum of 9 people were there at once. This resulted in the followup story that day stating "Party at Booth never starts". I tried to explain that people did show up and Dino did play his acoustic bass. What more did they want? LOL The temperature at this point was around 90 I believe.
The scope patiently awaits to be loaded up. It really doesn't like the heat or the light of day. Sheree preferred taking calls from outside the booth, since there is no glass, whereas I preffered being in the booth. Dino and Rick were kind of random in there choices of where to accept a call.
Taking the last few calls before we leave. It's around 11am now and about 103.
Barbie (on top of the booth) has developed quite a bronze tan out in the desert. Plus we all enjoyed her "ruby" nipples.
Some of the Range Cattle, passin by. Plus, during the night we enjoyed the baying of the coyotes and the "eeeh-aaaah" of the feral donkeys.
Official Phone Log (next)
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